Out with the old....

[sundead]

Who: Everyone
What: New Year's.
When: Dec. 31st, New Year's Eve, to Jan 1st, New Year's Day.
Where: Everywhere
Summary: It's New Year's, and the people of Luceti have a lot to reflect upon, and to look forward to. And on a more meta level, new journal names.
Rating: We'll see...

New Year's brings images of crowds, and songs, and fireworks; staying up til midnight and watching balls or bells being rung. But Luceti is a different time and place. Whether you're partying with friends or watching the sunrise, what are you doing today?

Comments

[touchofrogue]

[...sigh.]

Don't suppose Ororo will let the 'no minors drinking' rule pass on New Years, do you?

[...yeah, she figures that's a no before he even says is. And it's not worth the fight right now.]

Pepsi's good.

[bamfing]

[Kurt is far from being a minor back in Germany. And Luceti isn't America! But. He leaves that unsaid.]

One Pepsi coming up.

[He bamfs away. A few seconds later, she'll have a nice cold pepsi and he'll have a nice cold mountain dew, because that's how he rolls.]

[touchofrogue]

[She's tried this argument here! For some reason it never works!]

Thanks.

[Reaching over to casually claim a can.]

[bamfing]

[Yup. He just nods and opens his own drink, taking a big sip from it.]

It feels more like a new year this time, yeah? Since... it's actually been a full year this time.

[touchofrogue]

[She rolls her eyes and pops her can.]

Don't remind me.

[bamfing]

What, it's just been a year trapped in another universe with fictional characters! If we're going to be like Jubilee's X-Men, we'll get used to this kind of thing.

[touchofrogue]

If we were goin' ta be like Jubilee's X-Men, we'd have been here an' back again twice by now.

[bamfing]

Maybe we have and don't remember it.

[touchofrogue]

Journals. [Sip of coke.]

[bamfing]

Maybe before Luceti! We could have been Malnosso before. Going around being jerks to other people.

[touchofrogue]

[Snort.] Oh man. I think the soda went up my nose.

[bamfing]

[Snickering then. That's high praise for a jokester.]

Thank you. I'll be here all week.

[touchofrogue]

[She reaches over and shoves his shoulder.]

Punk.

[Ooooooooooh. That's a big one.]

[bamfing]

[Yeah. He loses track of his comeback. Damn.]

I wonder if that was Jubilee or a real one.

[touchofrogue]

[Rogue shrugs, just taking in the sights again.

Funny that they celebrate this.]

[bamfing]

[Well. It's fireworks, bright and loud. So he's not going to keep talking over them for now. Just enjoy the show.]

[touchofrogue]

...hey, Kurt.

[bamfing]

[The fireworks are starting to die down now. He glances over at her, slightly. He doesn't want to miss any good ones.]

Yeah?

[touchofrogue]

...why? Why do you keep callin' me that?

[My sister.]

[bamfing]

[Oh. For a moment, he goes quiet. Honestly, he had forced himself back into the habit. After all, what happened between them and their mother, what happened on that cliff...

There was a time he didn't want to call her sister. Or friend. Or anything.

He casts his gaze downward, suddenly distracted by the tiles on the roof. He's not really sure how to explain it. But. He can try.]

I... guess it was kind of silly before. [Even though he's not looking at her, he sort of smiles, feeling a bit self conscious at the confession.]

Growing up, I only had my parents. I mean... I could never go to school or play with other kids in the village. I always thought it would be great to have a sister or brother. They wouldn't care about the way I looked or what I am. That's how it worked for the kids in the village... or in books... or on TV. So when I found out my real mother was like your mother too... it was like I finally got that, yeah? At least, that's how it was then.

[touchofrogue]

[She remembers that.

The professor had, with her help, erased all her psyches. And it felt empty and scraped out and hollow and wrong, and so, so good to be the only one inside her head. The loss of Scott... had been nothing compared to finding out who Risty was, who her mother was, why she had been adopted and how she had been used, from the beginning, from the very start... Everything had been a lie.

And as she lay there, hurting in every way and on every level, the last thing she wanted to remember was the fact that she was Mystique's daughter. And then he'd come in, and smiled at her, and called her his sister. Tying her right back to Mystique. But it also tied her to Kurt, and she couldn't hurt Kurt by rejecting him. He was her friend, he was an X-Man, he was already her family, but Gawd Almighty, she couldn't claim him either. Claiming him meant claiming Mystique, meant owning loud out and in front that the woman who had adopted her, the woman she had loved and thought loved her... was the same woman who had lost her son due to her actions, and the same woman who had tried to hurt them all - had recently tried to kill Scott - so many times.

It was all too fresh and raw.

So she hadn't said anything.

But he kept at it. And she started thinking that maybe, out of this, just maybe... she could get a real family. A family she could be glad of, be proud of, depend on...

And then she had been the one to let him down, and destroy what linked them together.]

...what changed?

[She knows she'll hear about It. At least, she thinks she will. And looking at the fireworks, she hopes she's strong enough to handle it.]

[bamfing]

[Something like this, he's not sure he can put it into words. He's not sure at what point it did change. At least, why it started to change for the better.]

When we were first here, I figured that was over.

[How could I forgive her? She took everything.

He spent so long resenting the fact that she took his birth mother from him. She may have had every reason to hate her, but Kurt had never got the chance to know Mystique. To find out why she left him behind. Why she never revealed herself to him. Or even tell him who his own father was. More than that, he never was able to reach out and find out what filled her with so much hate.

So. What changed?]

I don't know what it was. But... what happened to our mother was her own doing. [She made an alliance with a man like Mesmero. Used Rogue as a key for her ambitions. Acted in a way with seemingly no real objective.] I know that. But even if what you did was wrong... Maybe it was right, too. I had that choice, too. Even though I think I did the right thing... nothing good came of it.

[Magneto. If he had just followed the plan, so much would have been different. So much. After what he did to Wanda, Kurt can't believe he ever had pity on that man.]

I guess I realized things aren't always simple. [Like. Taking a life.]

[touchofrogue]

It's not... it's not simple. [Gawd, what does she even say to all that?]

I don't know what ta say, Kurt. It might have been her own doin' that got her frozen into stone, but I was the one that [pushed her off a cliff] ...made sure she'd never come back. I know I hurt you and... I wish I could have done what was right.

[If only she knew what was right. Leaving Mystique alive to hurt them both? Was that right? No. But saving her... like Gambit saved his dad... saving her would have been right, for sure. She swallows hard, daring to share a little bit more.]

Do you know why Mystique adopted me?

[It's at least in part a rhetorical question - she knows she's never talked about this with him - with anyone, really - before.

Let's just say it was my powers she wanted to nurture didn't even begin to cover it.]

[bamfing]

[His other self knew all of Mystique's plans for Rogue. Though those memories are hazy already. But when it comes down to it, he doesn't need another life to tell him what is obvious. Why would his mother adopt some random mutant...]

She needed your powers.

[And not just any powers. Rogue's powers.]

If she wanted just any mutant... well, I wouldn't be Kurt Wagner.

[touchofrogue]

[Well, him guessing that means that she doesn't need to bare her heart over Destiny or any of that...

The best thing she ever did for you was let you go.]

No. You'd be Michael Darkholme. [And we both remember what a charmer he was, right? Don't be sad about this, Kurt.

But because she doesn't want him thinking about that too much either...]

And you're right. That was all it was, from the beginnin'.